LETTER: Anti-Jewish slurs

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Dear Editor:

As the "Arab Spring" degenerates in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and falls into outright bloodshed in Syria, Palestinians continue their history of disgusting propaganda attacks against the Jewish religion.

These assaults are against Judaism and Jewish people world-wide. It's bigotry and hate-speech, and calls into question the blinders worn by Palestinian supporters in our community.

As President Obama was in Israel on the eve of Passover, the Miftah organization, founded by Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi and funded by European and Western governments, published an article accusing Jews of using the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover. This ugly "blood libel," formulated by Christians during the Middle Ages in order to justify persecuting Jewish communities, has repeatedly been used by contemporary Arab governments and terror organizations to slur the Jewish religion.

The original article was in Arabic, written by Palestinian Authority staffer Nawaf Al Zaru, on March 27. It criticized our president for his visit to Israel and his later tribute to Passover, holding a Seder in the White House. The article stated, "Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between Passover and Christian blood? Or Passover and Jewish blood rituals? Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe are real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover."

Miftah, on March 30, defended the article, calling outcries against it a "smear campaign."

Miftah receives government funding from Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Germany, Ireland and Norway, and from U.S. funded NGOs, as reported by NGO Monitor.

Voices from every religion should take offense against such anti-Jewish slurs, and support Israel, where all religions can practice without fear.